Freeman’s Folly.
Surprise, surprise: Another Obama intelligence community leader doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about:
Former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and likely chair of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), Chas Freeman in 2002:
“I’m a very practical man, and my concern is simply this: that there are movements, like Hamas, like Hezbollah, that in recent decades have not done anything against the United States or Americans, even though the United States supports their enemy, Israel.”
Read the rest of the quote. Then note this by
Freeman’s more noteworthy analytical error, in my view, is his description of the recent past. Read again the lines underlined above. How could Freeman claim — in 2002 — that Hezbollah has “not done anything against the United States or Americans, even though the United States supports their enemy, Israel” in “recent decades”?
In June of 1996, just six years prior to Freeman’s comments (that is, not even one decade in the past at the time), Hezbollah was directly responsible for the Khobar Towers bombing. There is no doubt over Hezbollah’s and Iran’s role in the attack. The Clinton administration, the Bush administration, the 9/11 Commission, the DOJ, and everyone else that I am aware of are in agreement: Iran was responsible for the attack. Al Qaeda may have also played a role, per the 9/11 Commission’s final report and other evidence. But this does not diminish the fact that Iran and Hezbollah were principally responsible.
The 2001 indictment of the Khobar Towers conspirators makes Hezbollah’s and Iran’s role clear. And, as former Clinton administration officials have repeatedly said, this was clear long before 2001 as well.
19 U.S. servicemen were killed at Khobar Towers. More than 370 others, including some Americans as well as civilians and workers of various other nationalities, were wounded. Yet, Chas Freeman was apparently unaware that the attack was executed by Hezbollah. He was evidently ignorant of this fact even though it took place inside the Saudi Kingdom, home to his controversial patron, the Saudi royal family.
The attack on Khobar Towers was not some minor blimp on the national security screen. It was a direct assault on the American forces that were stationed in the Gulf to maintain the Clinton administration’s dual containment of Saddam’s Iraq and the mullahs’ Iran.
Our intelligence professionals, especially those charged with stopping the terrorist threat, were certainly aware of all this in 2002. Chas Freeman apparently was not.